Jason Mercier Parts Ways With PokerStars

It was just around a week back that 33-year old poker professional Vanessa Selbst announced her retirement from poker and also the end of her long-time sponsorship deal with PokerStars. Now, we come with more news of a pro parting ways with PokerStars – Jason Mercier.

Mercier is an American pro who has over $18 million in live poker earnings and he has been around PokerStars events for nearly ten years now. Recently, he announced in a note to PokerStars (click here for full note), that he has chosen parenting over poker and has decided he can no longer be an ambassador for PokerStars. Much like Selbst wanting to start a family and settle down, Mercier has also quit due to changing priorities and mentioned that he no longer thinks about his own concerns, but more about the well being of his family.

Mercier married poker player Natasha Barbour in 2016 and they gave birth to Marco Mercier in October 2017. Since then, Mercier mentioned that he always knew it would be time to give up some things in life and it was just a matter of time before he quit PokerStars. Mercier was a PokerStars Pro for over 8 years.

He mentioned that 6th January was the start of the PokerStars Caribbean Adventure in the Bahamas and this would be the first time he had to miss the tournament since he first went for it 10 years back, as he had to take his son to the doctor. He also missed the $100k super high roller event, having played it every year that is has been offered there – 7 years.

Team PokerStars has been shrinking it the recent years. They have been putting more money and efforts into deals with non-poker celebrities like Kevin Hart & Usain Bolt, leaving less for their pros. Will they have to rethink their strategies and make some changes?

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